11/10/2017 The Finnish Model

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Monday, October 9, 2017

The Finnish Model
To Improve Europes Militaries, Look North
Elisabeth Braw

ELISABETH BRAW is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

When Mikael Granlund was called up for service in Finland [1]s military seven years ago, he could have tried to get an exemption.
For an elite ice hockey player such as Granlund, who now plays for the National Hockey League team Minnesota Wild, a year in
the armed forces [2] can bring serious athletic setbacks. But Granlund didnt try to be exempted.

For a Finn, its an honor to do military service, the 25-year-old Granlund said this month. Its just something you do if you want
your country to stay independent. What about athletes? Professional athletes do it, too, Granlund added. Its just something you
want to do.

Granlund is not alone. Each year, several of Finlands top athletes join the Finnish Defence Forces as conscripts. So do music
stars, who could similarly try to be exempted. Though the FDFlike most armed forcesexempts would-be conscripts only for
health-related reasons, in many countries young men fake illnesses in order to avoid service. And young star athletes and artists
would, one might think, have a good reason to avoid the draft, as their careers could suffer irreparably from a year away from the
limelight. (Next years cohort of conscripts will include one of the countrys biggest pop stars, Robin, who will enter the navy.)

Indeed, as Granlunds and Robins enlistments show, the FDF has managed a feat that other armed forces [3] could learn from: it
has made itself an attractive destination for conscripts and professional troops alike. This helps explain why the armed forces
routinely have more applicants than openings for noncommissioned officer positions. According to a May Eurobarometer poll [4], 95
percent of Finns trust their army, a higher rate than anywhere else in the European Union. (In Germany [5], 66 percent trust the
army; across the EU, the average is 75 percent.)

Granlund and many other Finns may consider conscription a patriotic duty, but militaries cannot count on citizens love of country to
fill their ranks. Consider the case of Russia: even though a June poll found that 87 percent of the countrys citizens [6] support
President Vladimir Putins handling of foreign affairs, only around 37 percent of its young men [7] perform military service [8], which in
theory is mandatory for everyone.

The appeal of Finlands military extends beyond patriotism and depends partly on its willingness to listen to its soldiers [9]. In 2002,
the FDF introduced a system that tracks and evaluates soldiers and officers experiences. It has changed how we treat our
soldiers and how soldiers view the FDF, said Brigadier General Jukka Sonninen, the FDFs head of training.

Under this system, which the FDF calls Transformational Leadership, Finlands military regularly polls soldiers throughout their
service on matters such as sleeping arrangements, superiors leadership, stress management, unit cohesion, and communications
from central offices. The FDF carries out the survey at every level, too: group, company, battalion, and brigade.

Sonninens unit tracks and evaluates the results, paying particular attention to changes in scores. The point is not that we conduct
surveys and score well and say, Thats great; they love us, Sonninen told me. The point is that we analyze the results and then
look for the root reason: Has a certain event caused a particular score? A certain person? Certain processes such as health care?
When people figure out that the process works, it dramatically changes their attitude.

Finnish troops, in other words, know that they dont have to call a hot line or contact a superior to talk about their problems.
Sonninens staff will regularly come to them and follow up on the results.

This fall, soldiers gave the cohesion of their units an average score of 4.2 out of 5 and gave the officers in charge of their training
the same rating. Those scores and all others have improved over the last 15 years. In a survey of conscripts also conducted this
fall, 66 percent rated their military service positively; in 2002, less than half did.

FDF officers leadership abilities have quickly improved thanks to the scheme. Although Finnish officers never treated their soldiers
brutally, they mostly relied on their authority to get things done. Now, Sonninen told me, success is based on a mutual bond of trust
between commanders and subordinates. The well-being of Finnish soldiers has also grown. The bond between the soldier and the
commander cant just be about authority, Sonninen said. You dont shout to your subordinates; you talk just like you talk to a
normal person. Listen to the people you lead; dont just give commands.

Finland has shown that the secret to making the armed forces popular is ensuring that the low-ranking soldiers and
noncommissioned officers who make up most of the ranks are content.

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11/10/2017 The Finnish Model
That approach is working. In the most recent survey of graduating conscripts, conducted this fall, 80 percent supported maintaining
conscription [10]; 42 percent said that they would serve even if conscription were not mandatory; and 22 percent were neutral. Only
36 percent said they would not serve. If Finns forced to serve say they would have done so even if they did not have to, then the
FDF has managed a feat from which other countries can learn. Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a security analyst at the Finnish
Institute of International Affairs (who also served as a conscript), argued that there is plenty that other countries can replicate.
Dont oversell, he said. You cant have cool videos of soldiers jumping out of airplanes if you cant deliver. But equally, dont
undersell. Once troops are enlisted, militaries must make their service worthwhile. Keep them learning skills that they can also
use elsewhere, Salonius-Pasternak said. Theres a difference between getting people and motivating them. This way you get the
best people instead of a large percentage who couldnt find any other work. (The U.S. Army has struggled with recruits who fail
their training [11] since it relaxed its admission standards.)

Armed forces elsewhere have commanders who treat their subordinates with respect, inspire them, and help them develop. Finland
has excelled by systematizing those virtues.

Although polling troops may seem like a soft-glove approach not suitable for a fighting force, it is in fact a clever way of incentivizing
the enlisted to give their best. As militaries in Europe and North America seek to expand their ranks, keeping morale high will be
crucial to their ability to recruit and retain troops. They should note Finlands example.

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Source URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/finland/2017-10-09/finnish-model

Links
[1] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/regions/finland
[2] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/press/2016-08-15/tomorrow-s-military-septemberoctober-issue-foreign-affairs-asks-what-s-next-us
[3] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2000-05-01/postmodern-military-armed-forces-after-cold-war
[4] https://twitter.com/IikkaKorhonen/status/902488375705391104
[5] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2016-01-19/bundeswehr-backs-away-brink
[6] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/22/overwhelming-majority-russians-support-putins-handling-world/
[7]
http://puolustusvoimat.fi/documents/1948673/2015525/The+Russian+demography+problem+and+the+armed+forces+Trends+and+challenges+until+2035/a2ef95eb-
b9ab-4563-ba31-cc1010b3c20c
[8] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2015-08-25/russias-conscription-conundrum
[9] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/2016-09-07/soldiers-revolution
[10] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/israel/2017-04-19/how-israeli-conscription-drives-innovation
[11] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/12/army-spend-300-million-bonuses-and-ads-get-6000-more-recruits/97757094/

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